Linderhof

Gardening, Cooking and Decorating on the Prairie of Kansas

Welcome to Linderhof, our 1920's home on the prairie, where there's usually something in the oven, flowers in the garden for tabletops and herbs in the garden for cooking. Where, when company comes, the teapot is always on and there are cookies and cakes to share in the larder.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Everything Has A Story -- Part One

When you "collect' furniture

rather than going to a furniture store and buying enough furniture

to fill your room,

Every

piece has a story

And the furnishings of Linderhof are no exception

My first story . . . .

The "bar" in the living room

It's German, Belgian, French or English

you pick!

They seem to be from the country that is chic at the moment!

I first fell in love with a German one,

called a Shrank

newly married our first couple friends had one

Stationed in Germany and loving antiques

they brought several pieces back with them

Alas, at that time big pieces of European furniture were not being imported

the only way to get something similar was to go to Europe and bring it back yourself

Furniture at the time we were married consisted of

"plastic" Mediterranean or Early American maple

And so I yearned

Years and years later

We were in a consignment shop

And there was a "shrank"

for $600

We've seen some for sale

At a price twice that or more!

Why only $600?

It was a "classy" consignment shop

Most of the furniture there was early 18th century furniture

mostly American

rather than late 18th century furniture from Europe!

We bought it

Had a friend and his trailer haul it home for us

And he kept it while we decided where we were going to put it

And so, with some furniture arranging, it came to live in the living room at Linderhof

We love the heavily carved upper center door

And the carving on the bottom

drawers

Deep storage -- it holds lots of "stuff"

The top is marble which is nice when you use it as a bar

Sometimes we clear off the liquor bottles and put some of our decanters on display!

The story . . .

The age of the piece

How it traveled from Europe to find it's way eventually in the little consignment shop

5 comments:

Beautiful piece Martha, so glad you ended up with it. It looks beautiful in your home and I enjoyed reading your story. We used to have a mall here that carried the big European pieces like that and they actually had some just like that.Have a wonderful day,Gina

Martha, that piece is absolutely gorgeous. I love hearing about the things you've acquired and you know I completely agree with you on collecting over the years rather than going out and buying it all in one fell swoop.